


in this twilight

by mardia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, Multi, OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 08:49:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5660296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mardia/pseuds/mardia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh, you two haven’t met yet, have you?” Finn asks. “Poe, this is Rey. Rey, this is--”</p><p>“Poe Dameron,” Rey finishes. “We’ve met before, and you’ve already told me about him, Finn.” He’d talked about Poe Dameron in literally every single holocall they’d had in the past few months.</p><p>Poe laughs. “Not nearly as much as he’s told me about you, I’d bet.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	in this twilight

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the song "Cosmic Love" by Florence + The Machine. Thanks to angelsaves for looking this over and reassuring me it wasn't a mess.

The day that Rey comes back to the Resistance base on D’Qar with the Millennium Falcon, with Chewbacca by her side and Luke Skywalker at her back, watching solemnly as they land on the airstrip, there’s only one person Rey is looking for in the crowd.

And just as she’d hoped, when Rey steps out of the Falcon, Finn is the first person whose face she sees in the crowd, with that beaming grin that could light up the sky.

“Rey!” he shouts over the murmurs of the crowd. “Rey!”

She laughs in joy and doesn’t think twice before running to him, leaping straight into his arms, the crowd blurring around her as Finn picks her up and spins her around, laughing the whole time. By the time her feet are back on the ground, she and Finn are already babbling to each other about everything they’ve seen and done in the months since Rey left--Finn’s piloting lessons, Rey learning how to use the Force, the first time Rey had been in a thunderstorm--

Rey’s not quite sure of how long they stand there, their hands clasped between them, before she becomes aware that they’re being watched. She tears her eyes away from Finn, his huge smile, to see General Organa and Luke watching them, the General looking amused and Luke looking at Finn curiously, his head tilted to the side, almost birdlike. 

Finn goes shock-still to find Luke Skywalker staring at him, his shoulders squaring and his posture going rigid. “General Organa, I--”

“Don’t worry, Finn, you’re fine,” the General assures him, and says to Luke, her arm linked with her brother’s, “You can’t say I didn’t tell you about him.”

“No, I can’t,” Luke agrees, still looking Finn over--Rey feels a bubble of hope suddenly rise up inside of her, and it only rises higher as Luke says in his gentle way, “It’s Finn, isn’t it?” At Finn’s wide-eyed nod, Luke says, “I’d like to talk with you, if that’s all right.”

“Absolutely, sir,” Finn says, and when he looks at Rey, beseeching, Rey smiles at him and whispers in his ear, “Shh, it’s good. Trust me, it’s good.” If it’s what Rey thinks it might be, it’s nothing short of _wonderful_ , but she’ll keep quiet until it’s confirmed for sure. 

“Two of them?” she overhears Luke saying to the General as they’re led off into the base’s headquarters. “One wasn’t enough, you sent me two?”

“I didn’t send anyone, they came to us,” the General says. “Now hush, you’ll scare Finn off, and if he runs away, I’ll have a mutiny on my hands, led by my best pilot.”

And with that, Rey turns, feeling someone watching them--which is ridiculous, everyone is watching them right now, or watching Luke, rather. But there’s one person--a human with dark hair in a pilot’s uniform, who’s watching them, watching her and Finn as they walk off. 

It’s Poe Dameron, that pilot of Finn’s, who’s watching them now--and as Rey realizes this, Finn turns to look over his shoulder back at Dameron, who gives them a small wave. 

“Come on, let’s hurry,” Rey urges Finn, linking her arm through his as they follow Luke and General Organa. She doesn’t bother to look at Dameron after that, to see if he’s watching them go.

*

“But are you _sure_ that I’m Force-sensitive?” Finn presses her later in the mess hall. They’re sitting alone together in a small table in the corner, although Rey’s well aware of just how many people are glancing in their direction. Namely, just about everyone.

Rey grins at him. “We could go find Luke and you could ask him again, see if he made a mistake.”

Finn’s eyes go huge in his face. “No, definitely not--” And then he sees her smirking, and scowls. “Look, it’s a reasonable question. I’ve never, I never thought I was...”

Rey shrugs and pokes at her meal. “Neither did I, before I was on the Starkiller base. And then, after--I knew. And I could do things, I could _feel_ …” She shakes her head a little, and meets Finn’s anxious eyes with a smile. “It’s okay,” she promises him. “It’ll be amazing, you’ll see.”

“Well, I still can’t believe it,” Finn mumbles, poking at his own meal. “Luke Skywalker wants me to train to be a Jedi. _Me_.”

Rey bites at her lip before asking, “You do want this, though, right? You’re not just doing it because we asked.”

Finn, thankfully, looks at her like she’s gone crazy. “You’re joking, right? I get to have a _lightsaber._ Of course I want this!”

“You won’t get the lightsaber right away,” Rey says, wistfully. “Luke still has me training with the stick, mostly.”

“But we get the lightsabers eventually, right?” Finn presses, and Rey laughs. Finn grins back at her, and Rey feels it again, that sense of homecoming she’d experienced the moment she’d seen his face on the airstrip. 

The moment’s broken as someone approaches, a shadow falling over the table, and Rey looks up to see Dameron standing there, a tray in his hand, smiling at them both, but mostly at Finn. “So the rumors are true, then.”

Rey frowns at him a little, but Finn immediately confirms, his face lighting up again, “Poe, you won’t believe what’s just happened--”

“Something tells me I will,” Dameron says, his smile growing crooked as he grabs a nearby chair to sit down at their table, and Rey feels herself frowning harder at the sight. “Luke wasn’t exactly subtle with the way he was sizing you up earlier. So we’ve got two Jedi Knights-in-training, then, huh?” He looks over at Rey as he says this last part, and without quite meaning to, Rey lifts her chin up as she looks back at him. 

“Oh, you two haven’t met yet, have you?” Finn asks. “Poe, this is Rey. Rey, this is--”

“Poe Dameron,” Rey finishes. “We’ve met before, and you’ve already told me about him, Finn.” He’d talked about Poe Dameron in literally every single holocall they’d had in the past few months.

Poe laughs. “Not nearly as much as he’s told me about you, I’d bet.”

It probably shouldn’t make Rey feel so good to hear that Finn’s been talking about her at least as much as he’s talked about Poe Dameron. Rey still smiles at it. 

Poe sticks around for the entire meal, and Rey doesn’t mind his presence. Mostly. He continues to linger though, while Finn gleefully shows Rey to her quarters, and once they’re inside, waits outside the doorway while Finn talks about the changes Rey can make, how he’ll show her flowers she can bring in, if she wants to.

There’s a sort of...fizzy delight inside of Rey, listening to Finn talk. He wants her to feel at home here, she realizes, and it takes everything she has not to hug him right there, wrap her arms around him tight. 

If they’d been alone, she would have done it, but Poe’s still watching from the doorway. “So what did you do to your quarters, then?” Rey asks once Finn finally pauses for breath, half-laughing as she asks. 

“Oh, just a few things,” Finn says. 

Poe offers from the doorway, “He’s bunking with me, so space is a little tight. He’s still made plenty of changes though.” He grins at them, at Finn, and Rey twists around to see Finn smiling at Poe in the same sort of way, like there’s more to the story than what they’re saying out loud. 

Poe’s gaze shifts to Rey and his smile gets smaller, gentler. Rey twitches her mouth in what she hopes is a smile and looks away. 

*

“Well,” Luke says a week later, surveying the debris. “We’re going to have to adjust our lesson plans, I think.”

“I really didn’t mean to split that last rock in half,” Finn says, nervously, and Luke smiles a little. 

“Oh, I know,” he says, peering more closely at what used to be a large boulder. “You did a very thorough job, though,” he says, kicking at one of the now fist-sized rocks. 

Rey nudges him lightly with her shoulder. “You’re in for it now, we’ll have to mediate for _hours_ ,” she says, but she’s mostly teasing. 

“The meditation’s good for you,” Luke says, and mumbles something to himself that sounds an awful lot like, “...be grateful I’m not making you do it upside-down yet.”

“Come on,” Rey says, tugging on Finn’s arm. “Let’s practice tracking again.”

Finn follows immediately, even as he’s huffing out, “Oh, come on, you know I’m terrible at that compared to you--”

“Which is why you need the practice,” Rey says, flashing a smile over her shoulder at him as she heads for the sensory-deprivation helmets carefully sitting on a nearby log. She takes one under the arm, picks up her stick, and points at Finn. “You move, I’ll try and find you.”

It’s a fairly simple exercise, but it’s already become one of Rey’s favorites, and not just because she’s so good at it. The helmets are lightproof and soundproof, making it impossible for the wearer to see or hear. Rey and Finn are using them to strengthen their senses through the Force, their ability to sense who is near without relying on their sight or hearing. 

Rey puts the helmet on her head and instantly the world is blotted out, black and silent. Although she doesn’t need to, she closes her eyes and reaches out with her mind, searching, searching--

She turns in a slow circle, her arm out, holding the stick out like a lightsaber, and in a moment she finds Finn, that bright energy of his, with a sense of warmth and vitality she’d recognize anywhere. Oddly this time he’s above her, and Rey feels a smile steal onto her face as she points her stick upwards. “Got you,” she calls out, and Finn confirms her find with a loud groan. Rey gets the helmet off her head and grins as she watches Finn clamber down from the branches of the tree he was attempting to hide himself in.

“One of these days I will fool you,” Finn promises as he lands on the ground with a dull thump. 

“You can try,” Rey says, scoffing, although she can’t stop herself from grinning. 

Yes, this exercise is her favorite, and Rey doesn’t need to think long about it to know why--it’s because every time she searches for Finn, she can find him.

“Okay, let’s switch it up,” Luke suggests now. “Finn, you put on the helmet, Rey, you try to shield yourself so that Finn can’t sense your presence.”

Rey copies Finn and climbs up the branches of one of the nearby trees surrounding the meadow. Closing her eyes, Rey envisions her shield in her mind, feels her breathing slow down as Finn impatiently circles about, hunting for her. 

He’s not successful, not until Rey hears someone approaching through the brush, and then right below her, Poe Dameron is stepping into the clearing, and in her surprise--and annoyance--Rey momentarily drops her shield, and Finn pounces, calling out, “Ha! I found you!”

“That doesn’t count,” Rey grumbles to herself as she clambers down the tree. 

“Excuse me, but that definitely counts,” Finn insists. “We should be able to work through any distraction, right, Luke?”

Luke looks amused. “He has a point, Rey.”

“I didn't mean to intrude,” Poe says, all innocently.

“No, it's fine,” Rey says, and if her tone isn't exactly gracious, it escapes notice. Aside from the raised eyebrow from Luke. “What do you need?”

“Ah, it's time for Finn’s piloting lesson,” Poe says, still with that abashed air of his. Despite the warmth of the day, his hair is flawless, curling just so over his forehead--and Rey feels a spurt of irritation as she looks at it. “I can certainly come back, though, if--”

“No, it's all right,” Luke says. “We were just wrapping up here, as you can see.” He gestures at the rubble, and Poe grins.

“Finn’s always been good at blowing stuff up,” he agrees.

For once, the sight of Finn’s beaming smile does not make Rey want to smile back.

Once Finn and Poe have left, Rey turns away to find Luke watching her. Her face going hot, Rey asks, “What?”

“I think an hour of meditation is in order,” Luke decides, and Rey bites back a groan.

*

One of the things that always surprises Rey is how _friendly_ everyone is on the base. Nearly everyone here knows Rey by name, and even just walking about, Rey will get friendly nods or hellos from just about everyone, no matter if she’s spoken to them before. Rey wakes every morning and is greeted with smiles and friendly attitudes from just about everyone she comes across instead of unthinking indifference, and it’s--it’s not bad, just startling.

Rey sticks close to Finn in those first few weeks, but eventually their schedules start to differ--General Organa and Luke want Rey to start having the gaps in her education filled, so Rey spends her mornings with a retired schoolteacher from the Corellian system, getting history lessons on the Old Republic, the Empire, the current political state of the galaxy. 

Her meals with Finn are still the highlight of her days--even if Poe Dameron is constantly at Finn’s side, he’s tolerable enough, Rey supposes. Some of his fellow pilots start joining their table regularly, and Rey finds that she likes them--Jessika Pava, Snap Wesley, Prif Mwelxa. 

So yes, her new life on D’Qar isn’t what Rey could’ve expected, but it’s lovely all the same.

Today BB-8 has joined them at lunch--not to eat, obviously, but to help Finn practice his Binary. Rey observes, impressed at how far Finn’s come in such a short amount of time--his fluency in Wookiee has also improved immensely, as Rey knows from all the time she’s discovered Chewie and Finn deep in discussions when Finn drops by to help her with repairs to the Falcon. 

Finally Rey comments on it, saying, “You’ve come along really well with that, haven’t you? And so quickly too.”

The reaction, not just from Finn, but from everyone at the table, is _odd_. The general conversation around the table goes quiet, and Finn awkwardly says, “Yeah, I’m...kind of a quick study, you could say.”

“That’s good,” Rey says, not understanding why Jess is suddenly looking down at her plate, or why Poe looks so grim. “Useful.”

Finn’s shoulders square, and he says, sounding almost defiant, “Yeah, I like to think so.”

“Finn’s always useful,” Poe says finally, looking around the table like he’s...making some sort of larger statement. Rey has absolutely no idea what is going on, but then BB-8 beeps loudly, making its pleasure at being understood clear, and when Finn smiles down at the droid, Rey knows it’s all right.

She still doesn’t find out what went wrong until Finn explains it later when they’re alone in her quarters, saying in an undertone, “It’s because my brain’s been modified. Genetically altered to increase my capabilities for learning, in the shortest amount of time possible.”

And then Rey understands--in large sections of the galaxy, the prejudice against genetic modifications on sentient beings is strong, nearly a revulsion in some quarters. For Finn to have had his brain modified, genetically altered--“That’s not _your_ fault, though,” Rey says, indignant. “It’s not fair of them to hold it against you, you didn’t _choose_ it.”

“They don’t hold it against me,” Finn starts, and when Rey gives him a look, sighs and explains, “I think--it makes them uncomfortable. And then they feel sorry for me.” He shrugs. “It just makes things awkward when it comes up.”

“That still shouldn’t be your problem,” Rey says, hotly. “Who cares if, if your brain’s been wired a bit differently. It’s still you, and you’re still--” Finn’s eyes are very wide as he watches, and Rey finishes, breathlessly, “You’re wonderful. If someone has an issue with what was done to you, then that’s--that’s their problem. They shouldn’t make it yours.”

The slowly dawning smile on Finn’s face is wonderful, and knowing that she’s the reason it’s there sets off a warm glow of pride within Rey’s chest. “Thanks,” Finn says, ducking his head, and impulsively, Rey reaches out to take his hand as she says, “You’re welcome.”

Finn’s hand is very warm in hers, and he looks at her with wide eyes as she wraps her hand around his. “Is this okay?” Rey asks after a moment, and when Finn nods, shifting so that their fingers are interlaced together, she can feel her heart pounding in her chest. 

Finn stays there in Rey’s quarters for the rest of the evening, the two of them sometimes talking together, sometimes silent. Finn takes her hand during the quieter moments, not letting go, and Rey--Rey doesn’t want him to stop.

But at last Finn stirs, saying regretfully, “I should get back to my bunk.”

“All right,” Rey says, but it still takes her a moment before she pulls her hand away. Later, when she’s lying in her own bunk, alone, Rey stretches her fingers out wide before curling them inward again, remembering the warmth of Finn’s hand in hers.

*

They don’t have a lot of free time, of course. They’re at war, no matter how beautiful and serene D’Qar is as a world, and Rey and Finn in particular have so much to prepare for. While Poe and the other pilots go off on reconnaissance missions, Finn and Rey train with Luke, working as fast and as hard as they can to be what the Resistance needs them to be.

Rey thrives--it’s not the work that throws her, really, it’s the time they have off. No matter how much work they have, Luke insists that they take time off--that they have leisure.

It's funny, because leisure is exactly what Rey craved during her scavenging days on Jakku, and now that she has some, Rey has no idea what to do with it. On the days where she doesn't have lessons, or tasks to complete, she tends to haunt the base, at a loss for what to do with herself. It's gotten to the point where Chewbacca roars his displeasure any time Rey tries to make repairs to the Falcon on her free days.

Thank the gods for Finn. Finn, who has an unerring knack for tracking Rey down on the times when their free hours match up, with a new holovid to watch, or to discuss one of the novels they're working through.

Today, though, Finn shows up in shorts and a thin shirt, with Poe at his heels, and asks with a grin, “Rey, have you ever been swimming before?”

“Yes, I went swimming all the time on Jakku,” Rey drawls sarcastically, all the time trying not to stare at Finn’s bare legs, the way that his oversized shirt gapes at his neck to reveal his collarbone, the smooth skin at his throat.

It's just. More skin than she's used to seeing from Finn. 

“So you won’t have any trouble with going out with us to the lake, then,” Finn says, and his smile is so wide that it takes Rey a moment to process what he’s asking. 

“Wait, really? We’re going swimming?” Rey asks, looking first at Finn, then at Poe standing behind him. “The three of us?”

“Yeah, if you want in,” Poe says lightly, and Rey is looking at him, but she’s thinking of Finn’s bared throat and legs when she straightens her shoulders and says, “Okay. I’ll come with.”

When they get there, Rey takes a moment to stare--it’s not the first lake she’s seen by now, but it’s beautiful and awe-inspiring all the same. All that water, reflecting the clear blue sky, the light wind making the surface ripple just so. 

Finn and Poe give her a moment to look before Finn asks, gently, “You ready?”

“Of course,” Rey breathes out, and then Finn nods and begins to methodically strip off his clothes, and Rey nearly swallows her tongue, her serenity broken. She stares at Finn’s broad shoulders, his arms, his--his nipples, his abdomen where a trail of dark curling hair leads down to--

Her face flaming, Rey tears her eyes away and starts to take off her own clothes, her limbs feeling stiff, like they won’t work properly. It takes everything she has to focus on removing her leggings, her tunic, to not steal glances at Finn all the while. 

Hoping to calm herself--or at least, distract herself--Rey looks over to Poe, but that is no help at all, Poe is stripping down to his shorts as well, and Rey’s breathing quickens at the sight of his bare back, lean muscles underneath that golden skin, the way his dark hair curls at the nape of his neck, stirring faintly in the breeze. 

Rey has lived and worked in temperatures far hotter than this all her life, and yet it’s taking everything she has not to fan her face. Which is ridiculous, Finn is one thing, but she doesn’t--she doesn’t even _like_ Poe that much, even as she’s feeling guilty over the thought.

Staring out at the lake so as not to stare at either Finn or Poe, Rey slowly walks towards the water. She’s heard of people jumping into deep water, had seen Chewbacca jump into the sea from a cliff’s edge, but Rey can’t do that. She wants to take her time with this. So she walks in, shivering a bit as the cool water--colder than she’d expected--hits her toes, then covers her feet, finally reaching her ankles before she stops. 

Of course, Finn and Poe follow her. That’s the whole point, isn’t it, all of them coming out here. They don’t rush into the water past her, though, just stand on either side of her and wait. 

“Pretty awesome sight, huh?” Poe says, with an inviting smile, and Rey makes herself smile back--and makes sure not to look down at his bare chest. 

“Yes,” she agrees. Rey hesitates before asking, but eventually ventures, “Where did you learn to swim, then?”

“My mother taught me on Yavin 4, before she died,” Poe says softly.

Finn doesn’t say anything at first, but finally admits, “Stormtroopers are meant to be able to survive in any environment.”

Rey blinks at this, and asks before she can think twice, “Wait--but they wanted you to try and _swim_ in those body armor?” Before she can worry if she’s said the wrong thing, Poe’s snickering, and Finn breaks into a wide smile. “I just,” Rey says, starting to smile herself, “I don’t think that’s how swimming is supposed to _work_ \--”

Both Finn and Poe are laughing now, and Rey starts to laugh with them. “That’s not how swimming works, but can you imagine what it would look like?” Poe offers, his eyes crinkling as he turns his laughing face to Rey, inviting her to share the joke, and for once, Rey doesn’t have to think before she laughs with Poe, the vision of stormtroopers in their white masks and bulky body armor bobbing in the water making her shoulders shake with mirth. 

She beams at them both, but it’s Finn who reaches out a hand to her, smiling as he asks, “Ready?”

Rey smiles back as she takes his hand, his fingers warm as they interlace with hers. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

There’s nothing of note really accomplished that afternoon--aside from Rey learning how to float in water, and yet it’s still an absolutely fantastic day, one of the best Rey can remember having. Her delight makes her generous, enables her to enjoy Poe’s company for once instead of resenting it, as he and Finn patiently coach her through learning the strokes, when to breathe, how to let her limbs relax as she floats in the water. 

Her hair, having long since collapsed out of her usual hairdo, floats around her, and at one point, Rey lets herself sink below the surface, eyes closed, feeling the Force moving through the water, moving through her--Finn and Poe’s presences bright spots within her mind.

Rey rises back up to the surface, spluttering a little as she tries to get her hair out of her eyes, but then Finn’s there, saying, “Here, here, let me help--”

Rey goes very still as Finn gently pushes her hair back, his hands brushing against her cheeks, her forehead. Despite the chill of the water, Finn’s hands are warm against her face, and Rey stares at him, the water beading on his skin, his soft mouth--and then Finn is staring at her, and Rey can see the exact moment where his gaze drops to her mouth, can feel his hands going still, his fingers still tangled in her hair.

The moment stretches, and finally snaps when Finn looks away, pulls his hands back and says quickly, “Hey, Poe, should we teach her the backstroke next?”

Her face hot, Rey twists around to look at Poe, but Poe is watching them as if nothing’s wrong at all, his gaze steady as he says, “Sure, yeah, we can show it to her.”

Rey swallows. “Sounds fine to me,” she says, still feeling the echo of Finn’s touch on her skin. 

*

After that day in the lake, everything just...shifts.

Rey finds it easier to be around Poe, ironically right as she’s finding it more difficult to be around Finn, at least not without getting distracted by his hands, his smooth skin, his smiling mouth. Rey will be having lunch with Finn and Poe and all of a sudden she’ll get distracted, her gaze catching on Finn’s lips, and then heat is flooding her cheeks and she’s having to look away. 

Finn doesn’t seem to notice it, really, but Rey’s noticed the long looks that Poe gives her, not in disapproval, but...considering, almost. Rey tries not to think about any of it, she really does, but that’s impossible to manage. 

And then, on the evening before their next rest day, everything breaks wide open. 

Rey goes looking for Finn in the mess hall for dinner and can’t find him. A bit baffled, she ends up eating with Snap Wesley. Which is fine, she likes Snap, but it’s...it just feels odd, not to have Finn besides her at the table. Or even to have Poe there as a constant shadow. 

“Have you seen Poe?” Rey asks finally, because asking about Finn might be...obvious. Obvious of what, Rey doesn’t know, but it feels safer to ask about Poe’s whereabouts instead. 

Snap shrugs. “He said something about taking Finn out for the evening, I think.”

“Oh,” Rey says, an idea taking root in her head. She doesn’t say anything else, distracting Snap with questions about the latest gossip on base, which Snap is more than happy to elaborate on, with his usual grand hand gestures. 

And so it goes that after dinner, Rey goes looking for Finn and Poe. 

It’s rather fun in a way--she knows how to sense Finn, but she’s never deliberately tried to do it over such a large area before. But her feet know the way, and as she walks through the woods, towards the meadow she knows will be there, Finn’s presence grows larger in her mind, as steady and warm as ever.

And as she gets closer to where she knows Finn will be, as she sees firelight flickering through the trees--she also starts to hear noises. Finn’s heavy breathing, Poe murmuring something too low for Rey to make out. 

Later, Rey will cringe at this moment most of all, the moment when she heard them and kept walking forward anyway, out of ignorance, curiosity--

But she does step forward, quietly, close enough to the clearing that she can see them by the fire, naked and tangled up together, Poe lying between Finn’s spread legs as they, as he--

Finn’s head is tilted back, his eyes closed as he pants for breath, and Poe’s hair is no longer perfect, it’s a disheveled wreck, falling forward over his forehead as he stares down at Finn’s face avidly, hungrily, all the while moving on top of Finn, his hips rocking forward, Finn’s hands clutching at Poe’s shoulders, his back as they move together. 

“Poe,” Finn groans out, “Please, just--”

“Shh,” Poe says, and Finn’s mouth falls open as Poe thrusts harder, more roughly. The firelight flickers over their bodies, their skin, and they’re--they’re _beautiful_ like this, and now they’re kissing, Poe is kissing Finn on his mouth, his cheek and jawline, anywhere that he can reach, ardent and adoring, and Rey is--

Rey is _spying_. She’s a spying interloper who doesn’t belong here in this meadow, this moment, watching Finn and Poe like this. So, her heart pounding and her throat tight, Rey closes her eyes and backs away, as quietly as she can--although it wouldn’t matter if she did make noise, as neither one of them would notice anything right now. 

The walk back to her quarters is a dull, plodding journey. Rey keeps trying to swallow to get this awful tightness out of her throat and it doesn’t work, the tightness keeps getting worse and worse until she lifts one hand to her cheek, and realizes it’s wet. 

Oh.

Gritting her teeth, Rey angrily wipes at her face and marches into her tiny quarters, where she sits down on her bunk and blindly stares at her tablet, not reading the latest novel that Finn sent her, because her brain is still replaying that scene in the meadow, Poe and Finn tangled up together, all that naked skin…

Her face flushed and her throat still too tight, it takes Rey a moment to realize there’s a gentle knocking at her door. Slowly, reluctantly, Rey gets to her feet and opens the door, already knowing who’s on the other side.

It’s Luke--not wearing his cloak for once, looking at her with a patient and worried air. Rey bites her lip and doesn’t quite meet his gaze, silently envisioning the sight she must make right now, her flushed cheeks, her pinched mouth and unhappy eyes.

Luke doesn’t say anything at first, then offers, “I have some tea brewing in my quarters, if you’d like some.”

Rey hesitates, but nods. “That would be nice,” she says, her voice rough. “Thank you.”

*

The next day, Rey stays in the Falcon, working on mostly unnecessary repairs. Chewie only halfheartedly tries to shoo her out; her face must tell the story for her, because he leaves her to it after a while, and Rey is thankfully left to work on her ship in peace and quiet.

Until Finn comes looking for her, at any rate. He comes with a smile on his face and Poe’s jacket on his shoulders, and he says, “Hey, I’ve been looking for you, Poe’s got another holovid for us to watch, that sequel to the ones about the pirates--” He stops as he sees her face, really sees it, and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Rey tries, but her shoulders are hunched and her face is flaming red, no one would believe that, especially not Finn. 

And Rey doesn’t want to lie to him. Not after last night, not after her spying--accidentally or not, she’d spied and it wasn’t right to see them like that, it wasn’t right to look at them like that and want--what she’d wanted.

So Rey, biting at her lip, looks right into Finn’s honest gaze and says, baldly, “I went looking for you and Poe last night, after dinner.” Finn’s eyes are already going wide, even before Rey finishes, “And--I found you. Together. I saw you.” Finn’s eyes are round in his face, and Rey says, “I shouldn’t have spied, I’m sorry.”

She turns back to the panel she’s working on, blindly working at it with the wrench, her body going tenser and tenser the longer Finn stays silent, gaping at her. 

And then he starts to approach, and somehow Rey is even tenser now, and then he puts a warm hand on her bare shoulder and Rey jerks and stares back into his face, so much closer now. “Rey, why are you upset?” Finn asks.

Rey stares at him, at his mouth, the same mouth she saw Poe kissing last night, and she says, without meaning to, “I didn’t think I’d see you with him like that. I…”

She can’t stop staring at his mouth, and Finn is looking at her and he has to see it, he _has_ to--and then he does, inhaling quietly, his mouth falling open in surprise, and that’s it.

“I’m sorry,” Rey says again, but now they both know what she means by it. She turns away from Finn’s stunned face, pulls away from his hand, and goes back to the repairs. Her hand is steadier with the wrench this time as she says, “Thank you for the invitation, but I won’t be watching the holovid with you today.”

“Rey,” Finn breathes out, and Rey closes her eyes.

“Please,” Rey says. Finn hesitates, but he finally leaves without another word to her, and Rey is alone, exactly as she wants. 

It’s not nearly the relief that it should be.

*

Rey should have known it wouldn’t end there, of course.

Poe comes to the Falcon a few hours later, walks right onto her ship as if nothing’s wrong. Rey’s working on the piping in the crawlspace, and she stares up at Poe, baffled as he crouches in low and asks, with that charming smile on his charming face, “Mind if we talk?”

Rey’s too dumbfounded to say anything but the truth. “Yes, I mind.”

That doesn’t seem to put Poe off, however. “That’s fair, but I still think we should talk anyway.”

Rey glares up at him. “What is there to talk about?” She stares him down, daring him to bring up last night, what she’d accidentally witnessed. Or worse, bring up Finn’s visit just a few hours before. 

Neither of those things happen, instead Poe tilts his head to the side, and says, almost musingly, “You know, I was ridiculously jealous of you in the beginning.”

Rey blinks. “Of me?”

“Sure,” Poe says easily, as if admitting to envy is the simplest thing in the galaxy. “Finn couldn’t stop talking about you when you were away, and then you come back as a hero with Luke Skywalker in tow and go racing right into Finn’s arms...of course I was jealous.”

Rey swallows, and says, “But...but _you_ have him now.”

“I do,” Poe agrees with a nod. “I do have Finn now, you’re right about that. And you have him too.” Rey is silent and wide-eyed at this, and Poe says, gently, “Rey, come on. Don’t tell me I’m the only one seeing how he looks at you.”

Rey licks her suddenly dry lips. “I, I didn’t think he--” She shakes her head a little, and finally says, “But it doesn’t matter if you and him are together like that.”

“I think it should,” Poe tells her. “Am I supposed to ignore you hiding away in the Millenium Falcon and avoiding us while Finn mopes? I think…” Poe breaks off and looks at his hands for a moment, before he looks back at her and says, simply, “I think that having Finn is what’s important. Not that I need to share him with someone else.”

Rey’s silent once more, her heart pounding in her ears, and Poe presses gently, “So what do you say? You want to come with me so we can talk to Finn about this?”

Rey takes a breath, and admits, “I don’t--I’ve never had anything to share before. Or anyone important to share. I don’t know if I’ll be good at it.”

Poe smiles at her, small and hopeful. “Well, there’s one way for us to find out.”

He gets to his feet and offers her his hand. Rey doesn’t hesitate in reaching for it.

*

When they get to Poe and Finn’s quarters, Finn is pacing back and forth in the tiny space, and his mouth actually falls open in shock as Poe and Rey walk in together. “Okay, what’s happening,” he says warily, and Poe laughs. Rey’s got too many nerves to laugh herself, but she does manage to smile at Finn, tentative and hopeful.

“Good things, I promise,” Poe says, and walks in to kiss Finn firmly on the mouth, his hands cupping Finn’s face. It’s a brief kiss but anticipatory, and something flutters in Rey’s stomach watching them, at being _allowed_ to watch them. 

When Poe pulls away, Finn blinks at him, dazed, and then he turns to Rey. 

Rey takes a breath and goes forward herself, right into Finn’s personal space, Poe right by their side. “Hi,” she breathes out, staring at Finn, his just-kissed mouth. 

“Hey,” Finn says, just as softly, and Rey takes up her courage, and leans in to brush a soft kiss against Finn’s mouth, just the way she’d seen Poe do it earlier. 

For one horrible moment, she’s sure she’s got it wrong--Finn’s mouth is shock-still against hers, but then he’s kissing her back, his mouth warm and hesitant, and Rey shivers all over and leans in closer, knotting her fingers in the front of Finn’s shirt.

Poe’s still there, watching them--Rey can feel his gaze as they kiss, and when Poe rests his fingers in the curve of Rey’s spine, so very lightly, Rey relaxes into the touch, even as Finn is reaching out to touch her face. 

*

Sharing, it turns out, is an acquired skill. 

That’s all right though. Rey’s pretty motivated to get it right.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] in this twilight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5754532) by [knight_tracer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer)




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